This mod is worth your time. I reinstalled just to play it and I'm so glad I did. It can be a tough slog through more enemies than you are used to fighting but the project scales well depending on the level and number of enemies. Also there are a dozen or so places where you are going to see some things done that you have not seen before.

Gonna dig out this thread a bit. Wow. Just started Demon Crater. The moment when you come up the first time and you get ready for a fight seeing some Skaarj. But they don't move. Then you go to this strange sign and... I'm not gonna spoil anything. But this moment was mind - blowing. You gave me chills, I think you did better than most horror writers. Thought nothing can surprise me, and here is this mod. Awesome work, 10/10.

I overlooked this when it came out but it's actually really cool. There's tons of new stuff and it adds in something new every time you think you've seen everything. It's like a "saner" (in a certain sense) EXU with a flavour of it's own. A lot of the set-pieces, ideas and enemy concepts are stuff I haven't seen before in Unreal, and I guess it uses a lot of 227 features to work, so it shows that off as well. I've still got the last few levels to finish but so far I'd say it's worth checking out on easy even if you don't like difficulty mod stuff.

Finished it, though I had to give up and ghost through the Skaarj Castle redux because of constant save crashes (unfortunate because the changes I saw made stuff like the maze far more playable). What I said above stays though, and the way the mod handles revisiting levels to get items you missed is nice too. I did wonder if I was supposed to get the Rocket Launcher and Dispersion Magnum or if it was bugged though (or if I somehow missed other "enemy only" weapons), because the former has barely any ammo and no buffs or tweaks to make it more usable than the eightball, and the Magnum was randomly gained from an enemy in Skaarj Castle (and needs DP upgrades) despite fighting enemies with it for several levels.

Started on Hard and managed to get through the first 2 levels, but Ragjar was really living on the edge and required a couple of restarts. The number of enemies has increased so much + with the enhanced stats that I decided that as such it's not a game for me.So the next day I restarted with the XP system + supereasy and that's been doable up to now.

It's still not my kind of game, in fact to me it's not really Unreal anymore. However, I can understand many having an affection for this kind of "mutation". I have a savegame at the end of Ragyar but from then on I godded 4 (perhaps 5) more maps just to see what was in store. I can't remember any specifics but I have to admit that some new enemies and the new weapons are really well done, insofar that I have decided to play through the whole campaign (with XP and supereasy of course) because I'm really really curious about the rest of the changes/enhancements.I read that Skaarj Tower and Skaarj Castle are also included which is something I'm looking forward to, especially because at least there's a lot a space to move around in those maps (although if the 2 Generals there are also as changed/enhanced, I hope to have time to take a quick savegame before actually having to face them directly).

One factor which prevents me from being able to assess the real difficulty is the fact that my PC is a too weak (no graphic card) and shows some seriously lag when 20+ enemies fire spreading, especially if they light up the environment.

Even though it's never going to be one of my favourite Unreal Mappacks /conversions, I certainly recommend starting it and playing a couple of maps just to see what has been achieved with this old engine. I guarantee you'll be surprised (and probably pleasantly).

I'm at Spire Village.Unfortunately twice now when I got the Boss down to ± 1500 HP, ... the game crashes . It also happened once with The Chizra Titan, luckily only once. I suspect there's just too much movement and light-effects for my PC. I'll try again sometime next week and try to refrain for viewing the whole battlefield to keep the graphic processing to a minimum.

Apart from that no problems really, playing on XP + easy is actually too easy but I'm too far in the game to restart now. I have to admit that the XP system is perfect for players whose normal difficulty level is Easy to Medium, so I think it well thought through to include this so that the less experienced players can play this without having to cheat. If I ever start this again it will be on Medium difficulty without XP.

The high number of enemies isn't (contrary to what I thought) a pain in the *ss. The new weapons give the player a decent chance, even against enemies with 4000 HP. Some of the new weapons have very interesting (and useful) features (e.g. the modified biowastegun which can be used offensively as well as defensively simultaneously - not a weapon which I use often but there are situations in which it's surprisingly useful).

One of the bosses I've encountered was really innovative (and the first time I faced him I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to stay out of reach and which weapon(s) to use. Eventualluy I managed to kill him (thanks to the replenishing shield° but I still died after having cleared the level (you'll probably know why I died when you reach there): it was frustrating but at the same time I smiled and thought "damn you SFJake, you got me here"

Replay value to me isn't very high due to the fact that the almost constant high number of enemies seriously reduce the Unreal horror. It's not really an adventure with exploration as Unreal was, and ONP and Xidia and Xenome, etc... - it's basically a monster slaughterfest BUT I have no regrets at all about starting this: it's fun ... different ... but fun.

First of all, I want to end with positive comments because this adaptation really deserves it >>> this implies that I'm going to start with negative comments: even though the negative comments will seem to outweigh the positive ones - don't take my word for it: it's not what I really want in an Unreal game and that influences my feelings but I do appreciate what has been done and I did have fun in most parts.

The next lines contain info which probably gives away too much info so those who want to play this without more foreknowledge shouldn't read on: And just to be clear: it is really worth starting this up, even if it's not what you hope to get from an Unreal mappack: some of the things done in this mappack (weapons and enemies) receive an unconditional thumbs up from me.

- The number of new weapons is so high and their use is so different that it takes quite some time to figure out which weapon is effective in which situations (and which is not), also scrolling through the weapons is so time consuming that it got me killed twice. A short explanation should be provided when picking up a new weapon.- There is a modified weapon which (secondary fire mode) throws a green (or blue) circle which propagates and explodes at 3 or 4 distances - it apparently uses more than 3 ammo but when there's only 3 ammo left for that weapon, it prevented me changing weapon, and I couldn't drop it either. Summoning allammo solved that but from then on most fights where a piece of cake (except for some bosses and hordes).- The number of enemies is so high and too many times enemies appear from behind after "clearing a section" that the creepy feeling Unreal used to give me just disappeared. I actually stopped being surprised by being attacked from behind and had hardly any adrenaline rush experience.- The lava area with the warlords (and the orbs) was a pain in the *ss. If you take the one on the far left (from the entrance) as the last , it's practically unreachable with 2 or 3 warlords and the other enmies chasing you around and the only relatively safe area far away; It took me 4 tries before I finally figured it out.- The horde attack just before the queen area is just too much. I actually didn't fear dying since I was up to 580 basic health and had 30+ portable health packs and around 500 or more armour and more than enough ammo but the time needed killed the joy. I did die however, falling into the void when going for a restant of enemies staying in the dark. Apparently those enemies can walk in the dark but as soon as the player tries that the ground gives way. Unfortunately no savegame there so I had to replay the whole section : aaarrrgghhh- The Queen (make that plural): no problem with the first Queen (the only one I expected) but then 3 more appeared (different colours which made me realise much too late that the queens colour implies resistance to certain weapons) and after about half an hour wasting ammo, missing shots, trying to evade the Skaarj appearing out of nowhere and the Queen translocating to right next to me, I gave up and godded ... and it took me at least another half hour before all vermin was extinguished, only to find out that the exit doors didn't want to open.- I found 1 nightmare key and used it many times but nothing happened.

And now for the good things:- The new weapons and the new enemies are really refreshing (ok, not all, but certainly the majority).- Some new bosses are really surprising and seem almost undoable but sometimes you can avoid direct confrontation (e.g. the Morbias, one on a lower level and after that one the large one on the top level: in fact I killed that large one with no health loss whatsoever - just don't go to the top level after killing the one on the lower level, and use the correct weapon!!)- The story with the helpers is intriguing (although the ending didn't satisfy me)- pff, I can't remember all that much (and didn't take any notes) but seriously the new weapons are totally worth it.